Election 2106 Votes by Segment

Being very datacentric, I thought this look at how voter turnout by segment affected the election was quite interesting. Contrary to what some expected, the "gender gap" did not help Hillary Clinton all that much. It's also pretty clear that Obama's reelection owed a lot to people who voted for him because of his race.

Explaining Income Inequality With Demographics.

This is an updated chart from the Census Bureau's report Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015. What it shows is that differences in household income are primarily related to differences in the households themselves.

1. High income households earn more because they have more people in them who are actually working at something.
2. High income households have a much higher rate of marriage.
3. High income households are composed of better educated people, who have higher earning capabilities.
4. High income households have more people in their peak earning years (35-64).

In other words, contrary to popular political rhetoric, household income inequality is not something that is "done to you", it is mostly a product of decisions that you have made and where you are in life stage. The good news is that these are factors that you can influence. You can choose more education. You can choose to work. You can choose to marry and have more earners in your household. And if you're 25 you will eventually be 35 or 40 (sorry, but if you're 65, your earning power won't increase with age).  

Also, keep in mind that "income" here is only earned cash income. It does not include transfer payments (e.g. welfare, Medicaid, social security, housing subsidies, etc.)

Demographics Spell Slow Growth for Housing

The demographic future does not bode well for the housing industry or consumption goods such as food and clothing.

Demographics, Wealth and Growth

Over the last four years, economic growth has been miniscule. Median income and household wealth has declined. While the political parties focus on whether to blame Barack Obama or George Bush, here are two facts that economicsts focus on:

1. There are 3 million fewer people working today than four years ago. No matter whose fault you claim, it's impossible to build much economic growth when the number of people working is declining rapidly. Especially if those 3 million people are drawing checks written on the accounts of those who are working.

2. There are 828,000 fewer Americans age 30 to 44 than there were four years ago. This age group represents the prime earning, saving, and spending years. In other words the population mix is shifting away from those who create the most wealth and towards the younger and older demos that create less wealth.